Albany races run the gamut

Several City Council contests on the Nov. 5 ballot, with a few new faces guaranteed

By Matthew Hamilton

Updated 4:54 pm, Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Editor's note: Timothy L. Carney (C) is also a candidate for the 7th Ward Common Council seat. His name was not included in a previous version of this story. The story below has been changed to include his name.

Albany

Not only will the city have a new mayor after next month's election; six Common Council wards will also have new representatives.

Another six incumbents are being challenged, leaving three wards with incumbents as the only candidates on the ballot.

The 5th Ward race has been, perhaps, one of the more high-profile in recent weeks, with Sam Coleman waging a write-in campaign against Democratic primary winner Mark Robinson, who beat Coleman, incumbent Jackie Jenkins-Cox and Johnsie Ingram.

Both Robinson and Coleman are known for their community activism in some of the city's poorer neighborhoods.

In the 11th Ward is a four-way race that includes incumbent Anton Konev and Democratic primary winner Judd Krasher.

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Krasher unseated Konev for the Democratic nod in September by 100 votes. Konev is instead running as an Independence candidate. Also in the race is Green Party Candidate Peter Levenia Jr. and Republican Edward Benton.

The 1st, 4th and 9th wards feature races that don't include an incumbent.

The only nonincumbent not facing a formal challenger is Jack Flynn in the 8th Ward.

Incumbents Ron Baily in the 3rd Ward, Michael O'Brien in the 12th Ward and Frank Commisso Jr. in the 15th Ward do not face challengers on the ballot. Joyce Love is waging a write-in campaign for the 3rd Ward.

In other city races, treasurer candidate Darius Shahinfar has his place as mayoral candidate Kathy Sheehan's replacement wrapped up. He will appear on the ballot as the Democratic, Independence and Working Families parties candidate, but he faces no balloted challenger. He beat Gary Domalewicz by roughly 2,700 votes in September's Democratic primary.

Leif Engstrom (D,I,WF), similarly, has no balloted opposition for chief city auditor.